# Part 2 Another 'if you met God' how would your live change **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 6, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433 "2011-04-06T18:34:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/1 "2011-04-06T18:34:21Z")
First I want to thank for the replies to the first thread. I would like your response to the following modification: Instead of the angelic visit, lets say you were given a ‘spiritual gift’ of seeing either light or darkness in a person’s eyes. No one else around you sees this, and you have found that for those who’s eyes are full of light they seem to have Love for others in their hearts and minds, while those who’s eyes are dark don’t seem to have that quality in your experience and it is consistent as for as you can tell. You also notice that people with light in their eyes seem to bring ‘good luck’ while dark eye people seem to accompany ‘bad luck’ but all that could be coincidental and shows no direct relationship. What do you do - it continues to be consistent and beneficial? Do you assume mental health issues? Would you consider start to let go of the ‘conventional’ views of reality? Also Would it make any difference if you found out there is a scripture reference to exactly this? ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/2 "2011-04-06T18:50:30Z")
Part of these questions is really what would it take to start to question that things need to be repeatable and/or objectivity observable to be considered ‘real’. So perhaps if you have anything on that I’d appreciate it as well. What would it take to consider multiple subjective realities instead of a single objective reality? ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/3 "2011-04-06T18:51:26Z")
So next time I go to a casino, I look for a dealer with light in her eyes. And practice my card counting, just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/4 "2011-04-06T18:55:17Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Would it make any difference if you found out there is a scripture reference to exactly this? What verse would that be? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/5 "2011-04-06T18:55:51Z")
I would assume I was imagining or hallicinating it and go get my head (and eyes) examined. > [@](#): > > Would it make any difference if you found out there is a scripture reference to exactly this? No. ---
**Author:** ![Mapache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@Mapache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mapache)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/6 "2011-04-06T19:06:05Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > First I want to thank for the replies to the first thread. I would like your response to the following modification: > > Instead of the angelic visit, lets say you were given a ‘spiritual gift’ of seeing either light or darkness in a person’s eyes. No one else around you sees this, and you have found that for those who’s eyes are full of light they seem to have Love for others in their hearts and minds, while those who’s eyes are dark don’t seem to have that quality in your experience and it is consistent as for as you can tell. You also notice that people with light in their eyes seem to bring ‘good luck’ while dark eye people seem to accompany ‘bad luck’ but all that could be coincidental and shows no direct relationship. > > What do you do - it continues to be consistent and beneficial? Do you assume mental health issues? Would you consider start to let go of the ‘conventional’ views of reality? > > Also > > Would it make any difference if you found out there is a scripture reference to exactly this? And what would you do, kanic, if a mile long spaceship came out from behind the sun and whisked all the American Black Muslims off to Paradise, leaving all the White Devils behind? Would you start worshiping Louis Farrakhan? Or how about if the Frost Giants arrive from Niflheim and start throwing ice boulders, would you decide to become one of Wotan’s warriors? (You won’t be allowed into Valhalla if your wounds aren’t all in front, after all). Start proposing impossible scenarios and we can go on all week. ---
**Author:** ![Mapache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@Mapache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mapache)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/7 "2011-04-06T19:13:55Z")
ETA (five minutes were up) And there are “scriptural references” to both impossibilities. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/8 "2011-04-06T20:09:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What verse would that be? Why would that matter, just that you found this spiritual ability written as such in a faith’s holy book. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/9 "2011-04-06T20:16:24Z")
If that happened? I’d first assume some cognitive malfunction. I’d probably try to do some sort of objective test, possibly getting someone to help me. For example, I’d read bios of people without seeing their faces and assign them a good vs. evil score, and then I’d look at people’s faces without seeing their bios and assign them a score, and then I’d see if there were any correlation between the two. I’d compare this to a control group in which I saw photographs of people. (I’m assuming that the light doesn’t shine from photographs. If it does, I’d ask a graphic artist to randomly cut-and-paste people’s eyes into a pastiche in the photos). If I was much better at predicting a person’s good score from seeing them in person compared to seeing them in a photograph, then I’d likely conclude there was something to it. If I scored the same from both in-person and photographs, I’d conclude that it was a visual/neural flaw that was interpreting normal facial clues as to a person’s decency into a minor hallucination. Reading a scripture about it would simply make me think someone else might have had the same experience at some point (or that I’d read the scripture before and forgotten) and would have no effect on whether I believed it was a real phenomenon or a hallucination. If it proved to have predictive value, I’d go public with it through some form. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/10 "2011-04-06T20:19:06Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Why would that matter, just that you found this spiritual ability written as such in a faith’s holy book. Because you tend to have a different interpretation of what a biblical verse “exactly” says than most, I would like you to please give us this fictional verse we are being guided by. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/11 "2011-04-06T20:24:15Z")
These hypotheticals designed to get us atheists to see the light are getting utterly ridiculous – like most everything from scripture isn’t ridiculous enough already. Seriously? Light’s from people’s eyes that indicate their luck factor? What’s next? Glowing green signs over people’s heads that tell us all their sins? I really, really, really do not understand what these hypotheticals are designed to get us to think about, other than marveling at the OP’s imagination in coming up with wildly impossible things that we’re suppose to consider as possible. I refuse to believe it’s just me who finds these threads becoming interminably idiotic. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/12 "2011-04-06T20:29:58Z")
This scenario reminds me of a short story where someone thought they could see mystic auras. It turned out they had a genetic quirk that let them see near ultraviolet light and they were actually seeing UV fluorescence from a skin fungus. Another possibility would be some form of [synesthesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia); my brain is translating some subtle cue to behavior like body language into what appears to be light. At any rate, there’s all sorts of ways sensing something that don’t require magic. And human perceptions are notoriously quirky and easily fooled, especially when it comes to something [subtle like a difference in light](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-rays). ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/13 "2011-04-06T20:43:34Z")
I would seriously avoid looking into a mirror. I already know what goes on behind these eyes, and I have no desire to actually see it displayed, even to me. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/14 "2011-04-06T20:52:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Because you tend to have a different interpretation of what a biblical verse “exactly” says than most, I would like you to please give us this fictional verse we are being guided by. It’s that you found the words in some scripture of some major faith, not my interpretation of it. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/15 "2011-04-06T20:54:15Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I really, really, really do not understand what these hypotheticals are designed to get us to think about, Just wondering what it would take for you to question your faith which is partly based on a consistent objective reality, and to me seems to fall apart without objective reality. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/16 "2011-04-06T20:56:40Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It’s that you found the words in some scripture of some major faith, not my interpretation of it. I’m not asking for your interpretation of the verse _you_ referred to in the OP-I’m asking for the wordage of _your_ fictional verse that _you_ referred to in _your_ OP. You know, the fictional verse that “exactly” references the fictional condition described by _you_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/17 "2011-04-06T20:57:45Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Just wondering what it would take for you to question your faith which is partly based on a consistent objective reality, and to me seems to fall apart without objective reality. What faith are you talking about here? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/18 "2011-04-06T20:59:02Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I would assume I was imagining or hallicinating it and go get my head (and eyes) examined. Can you make an appointment for me, too. Maybe we could get a groupon or something. I think we could round up at least a dozen others. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/19 "2011-04-06T21:08:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What faith are you talking about here? Faith that man is capable of figuring things out without divine help. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433/20 "2011-04-06T21:14:37Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I’m not asking for your interpretation of the verse _you_ referred to in the OP-I’m asking for the wordage of _your_ fictional verse that _you_ referred to in _your_ OP. You know, the fictional verse that “exactly” references the fictional condition described by _you_. OK, lets go with: Towards the end of the long count cycle you will be given a new vision that will show the intent of the heart, if the eyes shine forth with light, the heart is that of Love and good fortune will surround those people, if the eyes are dark so is the heart, there is no Love, and bad fortune will accompany those peoples. Again no specific verse is need, just that you see this ability in some scripture after you develop this ability. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/part-2-another-if-you-met-god-how-would-your-live-change/577433.md?page=2)